Intel is cutting jobs in Ireland, say reports

LONDON  Intel Corp. (Santa Clara, Calif.), the world's largest chipmaker, is looking to make between 200 and 300 workers redundant at its Leixlip wafer fab complex near Dublin, according to local reports. The development comes only weeks after Craig Barrett, chairman of Intel had told RTE, the state broadcaster, that Intel had no plans to make cuts in Ireland.

The cuts also emerged after Intel had revealed plans to form Intel Labs Europe as a network of laboratories with an "open lab" in Leixlip. The jobs are set to go by June and its Intel's preference that they go on a voluntary basis, the reports said.

Leixlip employs about 5,000 people so the cuts represent a relatively small percentage of the total work force. Leixlip was thought to have avoided cuts when it was not named in an announcement of 6000 job cuts made on Jan. 21 (see Intel to close plants, cuts up to 6,000 jobs).

The only position currently open at Leixlip at present is for an intern, presumably unpaid, to do social science research on ethnography, which is the scientific description and study of human cultures. The position was posted on Feb.5 and closes on Feb. 25. The task is to do primary research to understand human needs for, and responses to, new technologies in the health arena.